i've managed to get some
power to my transponder in
order to send this message
to anybody who is listening.

i am a soldier in the
interstellar marine corps.
my ship, the imc durham was
overrun by something we
picked up on ix538. some
wicked fast alien creatures
with big teeth and ferocious
appetites. these things came
bursting out of the the decks
where they had been hiding
below. they moved quick
and bit hard. everybody was
butchered, we had to scuttle
the ship.

i was sorry to see her go.

i made it to a shuttle and
got away. as i was leaving i
detected a distress signal.
i'll attach it to this
message.

[attachment]
\dstrs_sgnlrelay#6527
"anybody out there? this is
the mining ship callisto.
we have an alien on board.
its murdered half the crew
and we are barricaded in
the engine room. they are
smart. very smart. they
have set the ship on
course for earth. somebody
needs to blow us out of
the sky. if these things
get to earth then it's all
over for the human race."
//transmission_end
[/attachment]

so as you can probably
tell i'm on my way to
the callisto. i've
completely run out of
ammo for my rifle. i
can only hope that i
can find some ammo when
i breach the docking bay
or this is going to be one
hell of a short mission.

i've accessed the computer
on the callisto and i
know that their main power
is offline. the transwarp
drive is powered completely
from the backup generators,
positioned throughout
the ship. if i can just
get the them and shut
them all down then the
queen feeding off the
power will be much
weaker and easier to
send straight to hell.

i've remotely powered
the lights in the shuttle
bay and i've got my access
codes the the backup
consoles ready.

hopefully i can get to
the deck lift before the
queen reaches earth.
i'm going to take down
every one of these ugly
green bastards. if i
don't make it, tell my
family...

i love them.

[ /message end ]

Notes: I think I've made this game too hard :/ please let me know, either here or @gabrielcrowe on the twitter machine.

I like what you did with the tilemap - the graphics are simple, but evoke different areas of the ship well. In general, it feels a lot like the source material :).

There is a bit of a design problem with the ammo - as long as you have it, the fights are a bit easy. Once you run out of it, there is literally no way to not die (but you still have to suicide yourself). I know it's a demake, but have you thought of a recharging weapon? It could solve the ammo problem and introduce a new fight-fight-fight-run away rhythm to the gameplay. At the very least, a recharge station or some other renewable ammo source is needed.

As for the fights - maybe I didn't get far enough, but there is only two types of alien, right? I'd love another type of alien that would put a twist on the tactics - maybe it could lay exploding eggs, or do something else that requires a new approach.

Still - very cool, and I had fun for the fifteen minutes I lasted. What did me in was running out of ammo in the big 12+-room green section, with no leftovers behind me.

krajzeg, you're right, and you do run out. I wanted the game to have the same issues as the original and this definitely happens in that game :)

There are a couple of interesting things to note about the terminals. They aren't really required to finish the game. I put them in as a way to open certain doors without keys. You can miss some and still win.